19 pages • 38 minutes read
Liam O'FlahertyThe Sniper
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1923A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Anonymity
Anonymity is a consequence of war. No one is recognizable to the sniper nor to the reader, who is at the mercy of the sniper’s limited third-person narration. Even stereotypical identities are blurred. The old woman—who would seem unthreatening during peacetime—is an informant. The protagonist’s brother appears to be his enemy.
O’Flaherty doesn’t name the sniper or the other characters. This reinforces the impersonality of war. Individuals are only identified according to what side of the war they are on: Republicans or Free Staters. Anonymity allows the sniper to kill without remorse. The final scene, in which the sniper recognizes that his most recent victim is his brother, is symbolic: all of his victims might have easily been his kin. Any Irishman might be his brother and any war casualty is a member of the human race.
Anonymity allows the combatants to suppress their humanity. O’Flaherty suggests that dehumanization is a consequence of war.
Rifles and Revolvers
Rifles are used when there is distance between shooter and target. By virtue of being a long-range weapon, rifles are especially impersonal: they permit fighters to kill opponents without knowing or even seeing them. The rifle makes the sniper’s job possible. It allows him to dehumanize his victims. The sniper’s rifle symbolizes bloodlust. When the protagonist drops his rifle “the lust of battle died within him” (Paragraph 22).
In contrast to rifles, revolvers are comparatively modern weapons invented in the middle of the 19th century. They use more advanced technology and allow for fighting at close range. Because of their ability to be concealed, they are useful both for self-defense and for surprise, close-range attacks, such as in guerrilla warfare. In “The Sniper,” the protagonist kills his brother with a revolver. In the story, it is an emblem of civil war.
The Street
The street in “The Sniper” represents how war can subvert familiar landscapes. In peacetime, the street is safe, a highly trafficked, public place. In “The Sniper,” it is a war zone. An old woman’s body falls into a gutter; a car passenger slumps dead over a turret in an armored car. When the sniper decides to investigate the identity of the enemy sniper, he must risk his life; machine guns continue to fire at him as he approaches his brother’s corpse. The street, O’Flaherty suggests, is indefinitely a battlefield.
